Happy birthday to me, have an iPad game for freeeeeee...

Hmm... things seem to be going strangely to plan.

From Sunday - 30th September (my birthday) 'Eek! It's a Bomb!' will be available for the iPad in the app store, for free. And yes, it's a proper new game filled with loads of fiendish levels, fabulous graphics and a soundtrack by Ace Muso Josh Woodward. In fact, if you don't like it I'll give you your money back. (See what I did there? It's free, hahaha. Sorry, I'm a little excited).

I'll soon find out if it was a good idea to give it away as a birthday present to the world (that's you) from me. Since you're reading this, however, why not download it from Sunday, leave a review, tweet about it, tell your friends, etc etc.

All you have to do is search for 'Potassium Frog' or 'Eek! It's a Bomb!' in the app store, and have some fun.

Sturgeon's Law

When there's so much to look back on - the temptation is to rehash/refine. That's partly why 90% of everything is rubbish, and is not where it is at.

nostalgia...

… isn’t what it used to be.

A long-running list of things I’ve seen in my lifetime now includes:
microwave ovens/personal computers/mobile phones/color televisions/drive-by shootings/brainwave entrainment/digital entertainment format wars/infinite possibilities/reality tv/laminate flooring conventions/blogs/the birth of disco/the death of disco/satellite tv/.coms/talentless television talent contests/recycling attendants/flat-screen televisions/5-blade razors/boredom-on-demand

Last days of Data Wars

There's something quite liberating in moving your website from a dangerous self-hosted site to a fluffy cotton-covered fireside of joy. No more updates, widgets, or database wars for me. Until the next time, that is.

Now, later or even later still colin-jones.com should be populated with all my tweets, blogs and other rantings and a huge background drawing.

Almost Certainly the Best Ever Podcast Today

A couple of weeks ago Andy Godoy from the world-famous Retro Asylum skyped by for some virtual coffee and cakes. We talked about many things, some of which will almost certainly interest you passionately, including some, none or other of the following:
Why did I write Rock Star Ate My Hamster?
Why was the game banned?
Who was the character in Slightly Magic based on?
Why is Clockwork the Mouse such a fabulous game and why does it cost so little?
Would I rather have a bottle in front of me or a frontal lobotomy?
The new Retro Asylum Podcast – Colin Jones Ate My Hamster – click here now for the gory ‘truth’, or rummage about in iTunes.

Podcast

Recording a podcast with the UKs #1 Retro Gaming Podcast tomorrow.

My Program is Scattered to the Stars

A few people have asked me what ‘s different about the games industry these days. That could take a book to answer, but one of the big differences I’ve noticed is the basic structure of programs.

When I wrote an 8-bit or 16-bit game the program followed a nice sequence, running like a flowchart from top to bottom. These days there are little bits of code all over the shop (maybe even on different machines in different continents) that get called when certain conditions are met. Which means you have to be careful about changing any data, in case another bit of code is doing the same thing in another universe.